ORANGE — When Peter Daniell’s son Jonah and grandson Ray Starpoli cooked up the idea to celebrate the patriarch’s 77th birthday by skydiving, Peter could not come up with a single reason why that wouldn’t work. Not even his health, which has been tested in recent years, could dampen his zeal.
“Yeah, colon cancer, surgically cured, prostate cancer, surgically cured, bladder cancer, surgically cured,” he said, mentioning the neuroendocrine cancer bedeviling him presently. He said his wife, Amherst attorney Jenny Daniell, has guided him through it all. “She’s really on top of it.”
“He’s been through some tough times,” said Jenny, “and part of today is sort of capturing joy when we can, and continued courage through this hard time.”
The Leverett resident has been practicing his “Geronimo!” for that moment when one dives from an open plane, but a couple nights ahead of time, he dreamed he was free-falling through 8 miles of clouds. He woke up at 3 a.m. wondering, “Why the hell am I doing this?”
Skydiving has never been on his bucket list, more so on Jonah’s and Ray’s. But the Three Musketeers aspect of doing it with son and grandson stirred his heart.
The fellas knew better than to offer the adventure to Jenny, who said, “I prefer the ground. They’re much more courageous than I.”
Nor to daughter Emily Daniell, Ray’s mother, who figured, “This was kind of a guy thing from the get-go, but I’m waiting for the report before I’ll consider doing it.”
Neither Jonah, 30, who teaches music in Manhattan, nor Ray, 25, a software engineer out of South Boston, think of themselves as thrill seekers, though Jonah did rappel down an Ecuadorian waterfall, with pranksters telling him that his sister Molly had perished moments before. “We had a couple of real comedians on that trip,” he said, shaking his head.
And Ray once finagled a ride on a submarine. Ray has also tested his survival skills, dropped by himself in the wilderness for a few days, which he shrugs off much the same as he does the endeavor at hand. “I’m ready,” he said.
Upon arriving at Jumptown in Orange, the three, along with Jenny and Emily, were invited inside by Jumptown’s Amy Herrmann, who does just about everything at the place, from instructing to piloting to “jumping when I get the chance.” Height and weight are important factors when matching up novices with the instructors they’ll be attached to for the tandem dive. There’s probably no one here as tall as Jonah Daniell, who gets asked a lot about his nonexistent basketball career.
The perfect parachute
Next, the trio and entourage must watch a safety video, which has the young host describing the sport as a “leap of faith,” reminding the rookies that there’s “no perfect pilot, no perfect airplane, no perfect parachute … and you have the risk of serious injury or death,” prompting Peter to mock-cry: “I’m outa here!”
Daughter Emily admitted to being nervous since May when the plan was hatched, but when she brought up Jumptown’s website and learned about backup parachutes and how at a certain altitude the thing’ll just automatically open, she felt better.
The video urges one to stay calm in the unlikely event of an emergency, to keep arching your back during free fall and have your feet up coming in for a landing to assure a smooth butt-skidding arrival.
“Can you do that?” Jenny asked her husband, who has knee surgery scheduled for next month. He gave her the piece-of-cake shrug.
Documenting adrenaline
The family headed to the hangar to meet the instructors they would be attached to — Chris Belli, Paul Vincent and Mark Wilson — and to be fitted with jumpsuits and harnesses.
“In a few minutes, we’re gonna hop in that airplane and hop off,” said Wilson, as the first-time jumpers were physically put through the proper positions for that literal leap of faith and the ensuing feet-up landing.
There were also a handful of experienced skydivers making the flight, including the exuberant Ty Rogers, who was “jumping for fun with a couple of friends” but who also coaches at Jumptown.
“Once you do eight jumps with an instructor, you do 17 jumps with a coach and get your license. I love it, one of my favorite things ever!” he exclaimed.
Recording the family’s escapade was paramount and the company offers a few versions, wrist-mounted cams and such. Ray was coached by his tandem partner Wilson: “When you’re in free fall, I’m gonna be behind you. You have to look at the camera and smile. You should not be looking at the ground, OK? Give a thumbs-up, look at the whole world, back over at the camera, scream, smile, cry, whatever, but try not to stare at the ground.”
Talking to the official videographer’s camera, Peter said, “We’re thrilled to be here but mostly we’re celebrating our family.”
With the steady gait of astronauts, the trio proceeded to the plane, a 1993 Cessna 208 Caravan, and with the roar of its engine, the mission was afoot. Twenty minutes later, the plane was spotted, and those in the crowd with the keenest eyesight could make out bodies hurtling downward from 14,000 feet, a family seen only as faraway specks. Then the chutes burst open like time-lapse moonflowers, and the graceful descent to Mother Earth began.
Sticking the landing
Ty Rogers came whooping and swooping into a three-step landing, thrusting his fist like a kid coming off his first roller coaster.
Moments later, it was Jonah and Ray, legs up in flawless butt skids, both standing up grinning. The patriarch, meanwhile, appeared to be coming in hot, but with a few skillfully rendered tugs by Belli, the grandfather slid in safe at home.
“Victory!” Peter declared. “Amazing! And my knees are still good!” His cheering family could be heard in the distance. “The highest I’ve been since Woodstock,” he quipped.
Would he do it again?
“We’ll reserve judgement on that,” he said with a grin. “Free fall? That was not that much fun — it’s so intense. But once we started canopying, my God, you can see all the way to New Hampshire.”
Peter embraced his wife and daughter.
“That was exciting even from the ground,” Emily said.
“I didn’t want to convey my nervousness,” Jenny said, “but now I can really relax.”
Son Jonah said, “Initially, I went headfirst, did a somersault maybe, little disorienting. But I remembered to arch my back and then we were falling in a way that felt more normal, I guess. The thing that really struck me was the noise during free fall — it’s so loud, omigod!”
“Deafening,” Peter added. “I could feel it making my face go funny.”
“I was fully prepared to curse the whole way down,” Jonah said, “but I was somewhere between a state of shock and serenity.”
“I enjoyed the whole thing,” added Ray, cool as the other side of the pillow.
Son Adam Daniell, who got there in time to see the jump, was almost at a loss for words over what he’d witnessed. “I’m so proud of them,” he said. “It was pretty … pretty …”
“Ballsy?” asked the patriarch, ever searching for just the right word.
